Tuesday, July 31, 2012

24 hours of labor, 1 hour of pushing, hardest thing I have every done x100. Even with the epidural.

Cutest and most special baby ever, in my humble opinion. We are so, so, so happy.

A million more pictures to come, of course. Maybe a little birth story but no promises. It’s going to take a long time to process all that. It was good… Intense, but good.

We are doing well and are settling in at home. Zach’s mother is staying with us and that is a huge help. My parents are arriving today for a visit. Lots of friends coming over and just so much love all around. I’m healing up and recovering rather fast, breastfeeding is going good (certainly not always easy though) and everything just seems to be in order. We are excruciatingly happy.

I have a Running for Two Part V (?) post to share- I did indeed continue to run up until I gave birth. I ran 4 miles with Zach on my due date and went into labor the next day. It’ll be a while before I can run again but I can’t wait.

Thank you all for reading and for all your support and encouragement. I can’t wait to experience what is ahead with my little precious Penny!

Saturday, July 07, 2012

On Wednesday, for the 4th of July, I ran a 5k with my best running buddy Alisa. We ran the Molalla Freedom 5k about 45 minutes south of Portland. I was 37.5 weeks pregnant that day. It was a celebration of running during my pregnancy, and specifically of us being running buddies the whole time! She’s been a great supporter and motivator and it was so great to share this race with her. Zach drove down with us to take a bunch of pictures. Also, you know, to be there in case I went into labor or something (spoiler alert: I didn’t).

We picked a small-town event and boy howdy! We got what we signed up for. The race followed the parade route through the small town of Molalla and there were hundreds of people lining the streets! Everyone was so nice and friendly. Tons of people commented on my “condition” which was fun. Lots of “Oh my, she’s pregnant and running!” “Would you look at that!” I think I blew some minds. Pretty great. There was a friendly local running in jeans and cowboy hat, one guy running with a bag of candy to toss to the kids along the course, and other cute stuff. We high-fived a lot kids along the course which is always fun!

The race itself was brilliantly organized. It was put on by the Molalla Running club with timing by Uberthons. There was chip timing, instant results, track start and finish, accurate course, lots of water and food after, door prizes, etc. Impressive work by Uberthons, and I would definitely recommend doing any of their races here in the Portland area. I would especially recommend this race!

We stuck together the whole time of course, proving once again what good match we are pace-wise. I was feeling really good and may have started off a little fast… sorry, Alisa! According to my Garmin, our mile splits were 10:17, 11:28, 12:44, and 10:00 pace for the last 0.1. I thankfully didn’t have any discomforts at all and felt great the whole time.

Official results:

35:27 (11:24 average pace)

9/13 AG

We finished with big smiles and a hug. We had so much fun! It was a great last race of pregnancy and especially with such great company.

Pictures!

I am 38 weeks pregnant today (Saturday) and will definitely report as soon as the baby is born. Hopefully will get in my last Running for Two update before then since I am clearly still running!